NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
QUICKEN LOANS RACE FOR HEROES 500
PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
NOVEMBER 13, 2015
KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 4 BUDWEISER/JIMMY JOHN’S CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Phoenix International Raceway and discussed his outlook for this weekend’s race at Phoenix, the pressure of the Chase, his chances of winning this year’s championship and many other topics. Full Transcript:
WHAT IS IT GOING TO TAKE TO GET YOUR FIFTH WIN IN A ROW THIS WEEKEND?
“It’s just another weekend for us in how you approach it. You want to go out and try to get off to a good start in practice and hope the car is close. And see where the racetrack is and where your car is and where everything is that you might need to make better. It’s a constant evaluation of your racecar and the conditions and the tire and everything to start practice and then adjust from there. And hopefully have some good speed in the car by the time you roll around for qualifying. Really nothing different than any other week.”
HOW MUCH DO YOU WORRY ABOUT A PART FAILURE OR SOMETHING GOING OUT OF YOUR CONTROL POSSIBLY TAKING YOU OUT AT A PLACE LIKE THIS?
“We don’t worry about anything like that. You control he things that you can control and try to get the most out of your weekend.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK IT TAKES MENTALLY TO BE ABLE TO PULL OFF ALL OF THE INTENSITY OF THIS YEAR? WHY DO YOU THINK YOU ARE SO GOOD HERE?
“I think this particular format has tested the drivers and the teams. Just the mental approach to every weekend, every moment how you react to those moments and how you move forward through those moments. Every moment is a big moment in this particular format just because one point or one situation means so much in what you have to do on that particular weekend and what it leads to the next weekend. I think our team has done a good job of controlling their emotions and things throughout the situations that we have been faced with. You look at this particular Chase, it’s much different than last year’s Chase, but in the end it doesn’t matter how it looks on paper it’s still a better position than we were at this point last year. It’s funny that you just have to in a sense play the game. Every week it’s a new game. You have to approach it the same way that you approach the week before, but every scenario is different. It’s hard to balance that all out, but I think we have done a good job in balancing that out.
“As far as the racetrack it’s just been a great place for me personally through the years. We have had a lot of really cool moments here with winning our first Truck race at KHI (Kevin Harvick Inc.) and winning a lot of races throughout the years in the different divisions. Getting my first win at Stewart-Haas (Racing) here and I believe this was my last win at RCR too. There have just been a lot of really cool moments. For me that is really neat because this was kind of through the years when I started racing here in the mid-‘90’s and growing up coming to watch races here with my Grandpa in the motorhome sitting around watching the cars go around the racetrack. And then being able to drive the cars in the Southwest Tour and Winston West and you still see a lot of those same competitors that show up on a yearly basis to race in different divisions. Or show up as fans and you see a lot of fans that have been here watching me race since the mid-‘90’s. It’s just a fun place and I feel like for me whatever reason throughout the years the flat track stuff has always kind of fit my driving style, whether it be here or Loudon or any of those flatter types of places. It’s just been good for us throughout the years. Even after the repave I think it’s still a really good racetrack for us.”
YOU GUYS ARE THE ONE TEAM THAT KNOWS THEY CAN WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP AT THIS TIME OF YEAR BECAUSE YOU HAVE DONE IT. HOW MUCH OF AN ADVANTAGE IS THAT FOR YOU?
“I don’t know that we actually really think about those things. Obviously we have the experience that we have gone through, but I don’t know if that is an advantage at this particular point. I feel like if you can be successful this weekend I think it will be better experience next week because next week is just such a different week mentally of things that you think about and go through. But you first have to get through this week. I think as you look at this week, I told somebody yesterday, I said the good news is we only have two races to go. So whether you win or lose this week you will have a short time to think about winning or losing as you get through Homestead and you don’t have to dwell on it if you were out after Dover. It’s definitely good experience for us, but there have been so many new experiences that we have gone through this year and new situations that we have gone through. I feel like any of those new situations can pop up. I still feel like we’ve done a good job in managing all the different types of scenarios.”
IS THIS THE KIND OF TRACK WHERE YOU HAVE TO QUALIFY UP FRONT AND RUN AT THE FRONT ALL DAY OR IS IT A PLACE YOU CAN RECOVER IF YOU NEED TO?
“I think it’s like any other racetrack you don’t want to have trouble late. You want to qualify the best that you can and try to put yourself in the least amount of possibility of getting in trouble around the least amount of cars that you can. It’s the same as every other track. You want to try to qualify as well as you can to keep yourself in a safer spot. Not to say that there can’t be anything go wrong up front, but it definitely makes your day better if you can stay up front. You are not going to recover really anywhere if you have trouble late.”
KURT BUSCH SAID THE IDEAL SITUATION FOR STEWART-HAAS (RACING) WOULD BE FOR HIM TO WIN AND YOU TO FINISH SECOND. IF YOU ARE RACING HIM LATE DOES THE TEAM ASPECT COME TO MIND?
“I haven’t really thought about any of that stuff to be honest with you. The only thing I’ve thought about this week was winning this race.”
IS IT HARDER TO WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP IN THIS FORMAT THAN THE OLD CHASE?
“I don’t know I never won one in the old Chase so I don’t have any reference. There were just so many different scenarios for us last year as we won the championship. You come in with a new team and new environment that I feel like was a better fit for everything that we had going on from a performance stand point and throughout the year and the way that things went. I can honestly tell you that last year if we wouldn’t have won the championship I would have felt disappointed the way that the cars ran throughout the year and the way that things went. It’s not to say that you wouldn’t be disappointed if you didn’t win this year, but I feel like we’ve challenged and been competitive and done the things that we need to do to stay in the hunt. But, never having done it before last year you just never had been in that situation to feel like we should win a championship because we have performed so well. It’s never been like that for me before throughout the whole year. I think as you look at the previous years before last year it would be a hard comparison, but it’s definitely more mentally challenging than I’ve ever been in a championship hunt before. Just for the fact of the pressure that it puts on everybody. From getting in the Chase and once you win a race it kind of relieves that pressure until you get to race 27 at Chicago. Then all of a sudden the pressure doubles, triples, whatever number you want to put on it because you know that you have to perform that day at that moment. You have three weeks to get it done in order to get to the next round. There is so much more pressure just because there is so much more on the line on a daily, weekly, weekend format like we haven. You’ve got to make it happen and that’s a lot of pressure for everybody to perform under. Sometimes it brings out the best in people.”
LAST WEEK IN TEXAS YOU DROVE WITH ONLY ONE HAND. DESPITE POWER STEERING HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO STEER SUCH A HEAVY CAR WITH ONLY ONE HAND?
“We had some transmission issues last week with fourth gear that knocked all the … it’s a good thing I held it in because the gear was pretty torn up. We just didn’t need it to pop out of gear again. We have experienced that as we’ve had that a couple of times this year. The more I let it pop out of gear at Sonoma this year the faster it would come back out of gear in situations. It came out of gear about halfway down the straightaway and I was just afraid it was going to blow the motor up. As you jam it back into gear that is when it really starts tearing things up. I just didn’t want it to come back out of gear. I’m a left-hand dominant driver through the center of the corner. The exit of the corner is kind of where I go back to my right hand. That was really the hardest part for me was just controlling the car on the exit of the corner. The entry was easier after my arm started going to sleep because I had to start moving my arm off the gear shifter. I felt like going into the corner was the best place to do that because I needed to have my arm back on the gear shifter on exit. I took the chance of putting my arm back on the steering wheel getting in the corner to try to keep the thing in gear on the exit of the corner. Because I felt like at that point I didn’t need it to pop out of gear, but if it was going to pop out of gear it would be better in the corner than it was to be in the middle of the straightaway and turn 10,000 RPM’s and break a valve spring or something. It was just a rhythm thing. It all worked out. It’s not the ideal situation, but for me I was lucky that I’m a left-hand dominant person through the center of the corner and that was I felt like the most important part of it and I kind of got in a rhythm on the exit.”
DID YOU MAKE IT THE WHOLE RACE DISTANCE LIKE THAT?
“No, just 100 laps (laughs).”
YOU MAY NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THAT THIS WEEK CAN YOU ELABORATE ON WHETHER RODNEY (CHILDERS, CREW CHIEF) CHANGED THAT AND IF HE DID DO YOU FEEL MORE SECURE IN THE NEW TRANSMISSION?
“Rodney, I think he feels better about the situation this week and they did chance transmissions.”